The sports bar: walls laden with TV screens, raucous cheers from herds of men and testosterone levels to rival a football stadium. That might be the impression most of us have, but Blu Sky at Southern Sun Abu Dhabi is more swanky bar than room filled with man musk.

We take a seat in the more conventional dining area (you can eat anywhere in the venue though) and menus are swiftly brought out. The warm-up (starters) and the quick one-two (sharers) all look inviting, but we opt for the Blu Sky sharing platter. Boerewors sausages, chicken wings, biltong, lamb skewers, mozzarella sticks and three dipping sauces. It sounds a lot, but it isn’t. In fact it’s the exact amount needed over a catch-up with our guest before we tuck into our main course.

Each component of the sharing platter compliments the other, with different textures, temperatures and flavours; and we could have had an entire bowl of that biltong. As the futuristic bar slowly begins to fill up, our now empty platter is cleared before our mains arrive – which takes a little longer than we would have liked. But it’s worth the wait. Veal sausage and mash for us, while our guest scoffs the honey glazed veal short ribs. The sausages and onion gravy are devoured in no time, while the tremendous amount of creamy garlic mash is the only survivor on our plate. The ribs are made light work of too. The meat has been taken off the bone, with the rib used as part of the presentation: sounds weird but it works, strangely.

The final whistle blows on our dinner with the sizzling brownie. This chocolate chip and walnut offering drenched in hot fudge sauce is absolutely delicious, but with slightly too much walnut for our liking.